Europe must get competitive in order to flourish – and that means less regulation and more risk-taking
It’s Friday evening in the presidential apartment at the Élysée Palace and Brigitte Macron has organised a cosy, welcome-home evening for the French president off the back of his dash over to Washington. Following her cameo in Emily in Paris, she has set the stage for both a romantic eve and a little political strategising to distract from tropical storms in far-flung territories and tedious domestic affairs. To get Emmanuel in the mood she has asked her manservant to order in a petite Thai feast from her favourite place in the 16th and she’s fired up the TV in the grand salon (well, sort of) to watch the first two episodes of season three of Le Lotus Blanc.
But why should Thailand be getting all the attention when the wealthiest man in France [Bernard Arnault] already has a real collection of hotels called Cheval Blanc? Isn’t one of his sons dating one of the stars of the latest series? France not only has plenty of fine properties on the Med but it could also offer up a whole package deal of locations for the next decade: Tahiti, New Caledonia, St Barths. Thank goodness they still have something that resembles a modern version of empire!
As the coffee table is set for a sofa dinner, the French first lady pauses to admire how pretty the Som Tam Thai (green papaya salad) looks in the sunny Hermès bowl and snaps a pic for her PR team to post a little later in the evening. The president walks into the salon soon after. He’s just wrapped his last meeting of the day and slipped into his favourite Loro Piana jogging suit. He kisses his wife, is served a glass of white and checks his phone. The embassy in Washington suggests he switch on the TV to catch the Oval Office encounter between presidents Trump and Zelensky. It’s taken a while for Brigitte to master all the controls and to get her show prepped on screen but she allows her husband to click around until he lands on CNN. Something isn’t quite right. President Trump is in mid-flow, leaning forward (ditto VP Vance) and president Zelensky is looking thoroughly eff-ed off. Macron turns up the volume. “Don’t tell us what we’re gonna feel,” says Trump. “You’re in no position to dictate what we’re gonna feel …” And there, in an instant dear reader, is how a perfectly planned Friday evening, a somewhat successful Washington visit and Europe’s security situation came to a clattering – poodle on roller skates in a Baccarat boutique – end.
Hours have now passed since that dreadful, depressing exchange flashed across our screens and European leaders have been back-footed yet again by events both in Washington and in their own backyard. We’ve had a flurry of messages posted on various social media channels from European capitals but if this unfolding situation teaches us anything, it’s that the power of television is not diminishing as so many would have us believe. Far from it. What we witnessed on Friday evening was clearly an ambush plotted not only for Zelensky but Europe in general. As of midday CET on Saturday, I am waiting for a European leader or tight group to assemble in front of cameras and correspondents, to show proper leadership, present a plan and take questions in the full light of day. Getting your comms team to tap out a few lines on social media is just lazy and embarrassing. The US has put Europe on notice and the time of grovelling in front of Trump is over.
Europe has been distracted for too long with its luxury initiatives, decadent social programmes and open borders. It now needs to buckle down and chart its own course: Airbus and Dassault need to crank up their assembly lines; Damen and Navantia their shipyards; and internal security issues in Sweden, France and elsewhere need to be dealt with forcefully and at speed. Europe must get competitive in order to flourish and that means longer working hours, less regulation and more risk-taking for entrepreneurs and established industry. It should have started years ago – but must start today.
